Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red menJameson, Mrs. (Anna)
History
Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red men
Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)
Indians of North America -- Canada; Ontario -- Description and travel
Of all the places I have yet seen in these far western regions, Detroit
is the most interesting. It is, moreover, a most ancient and venerable
place, dating back to the dark, immemorial ages, i.e. almost a century
and a quarter ago! and having its history and antiquities, and
traditions and heroes, and epochs of peace and war. No place in the
United States presents such a series of events interesting in
themselves, and permanently affecting, as they occurred, both its
progress and prosperity. Five times its flag has changed; three
different sovereignties have claimed its allegiance; and, since it has
been held by the United States, its government has been thrice
transferred: twice it has been besieged by the Indians, once captured in
war, and once burned to the ground: truly a long list of events for a
young city of a century old! Detroit may almost rival her old grandam
Quebec, who sits bristling defiance on the summit of her rocky height,
in warlike and tragic experience.
Can you tell me why we gave up this fine and important place to the
Americans, without leaving ourselves even a fort on the opposite shore?
Dolts and blockheads as we have been in all that concerns the partition
and management of these magnificent regions, now that we have ignorantly
and blindly ceded whole countries, and millions and millions of square
miles of land and water to our neighbours, I am told that we are likely
to quarrel and go to war about a partition line through the barren
tracts of the east! Well, let our legislators look to it! Colonel Talbot
told me that when he took a map, and pointed out to one of the English
commissioners the foolish bargain they had made, the real extent, value,
and resources of the countries ceded to the United States, the man
covered his eyes with his clenched hands, and burst into tears.
The position of Detroit is one of the finest imaginable. It is on a
strait between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair, commanding the whole
internal commerce of these great "successive seas." Michigan, of which
it is the capital, being now received into the Union, its importance,
both as a frontier town and a place of trade, increases every day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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